Arafat in danger from Israel: Palestinian foreign minister

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat is in great danger from Israel, his foreign minister Nabil Shaath said yesterday.

"There are grave threats against president Arafat. Israel is talking again about the possibility of invading his headquarters," Mr Shaath told reporters upon his arrival here early yesterday.

Israel "is not content with besieging Mr Arafat, they continue threatening to attack him, either to arrest or expel him," Mr Shaath said and called on the global community to protect the aging Palestinian leader.

After three suicide bombings over the weekend killed nine people plus the three bombers, Sharon's spokesman Ranaan Gissin raised the possibility yesterday of Arafat's disappearence from the political stage, if not the occupied territories.

"... When people say 'he's the leader and he's doing this' well, they haven't had the opportunity really to see what it means to live, or to behave or to act without Yasser Arafat calling the shots, literally," Mr Gissin said on Sunday. ");document.write("

advertisement

");
}
}
// -->

Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner also charged that Mr Arafat had formed an alliance with radical Islamic movements like Hamas and Islamic Jihad in a bid to sabotage peace efforts led by his rival, Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas.

However Sharon later quashed talk of Arafat's expulsion during an emergency cabinet meeting, Israeli television reported, and Arafat angrily rejected the Israeli charges against him in a telephone interview with US Fox News television channel.

Arafat has been trapped in the West Bank city of Ramallah, ringed by Israeli forces, since December 2001.

For his part, Mr Shaath was expected to meet his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Maher and brief him on Abbas' meeting late Saturday with Mr Sharon, the highest level talks between the two sides since the intifada erupted 31 months ago.

However, Mr Shaath, considered an Arafat stalwart, was not included in the talks by Abbas, who had been feuding with the aging Palestinian leader since before his swearing in as prime minister last month.

Another longtime Arafat loyalist, Saeb Erakat, resigned as negotiations minister last week after he was not invited to Mr Abbas' talks with Mr Sharon.